Ground forces

Ground troops can be dropped on enemy colonies and take them over. They also provide a reduction in unrest (by, we must assume, shooting dissenters). In addition, Engineer brigades allow you to exploit Alien Ruins, provide industrial capacity and can assemble PDC elements.

All ground units are built at a Ground Force Training Facility. They require some minerals, but no supply. They cost a modest amount of wealth for upkeep.

Organisation

Up to four ground unit battalions can be organized in a brigade, and up to four brigades in a division. Similar to Naval Organisation and civilian Sector Commands, higher echelon HQs radiate so much wisdom that their subordinate units get a bonus of one quarter of the HQ commanders' skills. This affects ground combat and training. It is possible (but untested) that the commanding officer in a brigade or division HQ should have a higher rank than his subordinates to be effective.

 Division HQ
     - Brigade HQ
         - Battalion
         - Battalion
         - Battalion
         - Battalion
     - Brigade HQ
         - Battalion
         - Battalion
         - Battalion
         - Battalion
     - Brigade HQ
         ...
     - Brigade HQ
         ...

Note that an Engineer Brigade is five times larger than a battalion, but can be subordinated to a Brigade HQ like a battalion.

Combat

see ground combat.

Summary.

Stats for Ground Units

• Type, The type of unit. Different types, AST, BHQ, DHQ, ENG, GAR, HVA, LTA, LTI, MAR, MRC, INF, REP, ICD, ACD,, and more. Base attack and def stats are determined by the type, and Racial Ground Combat Strength (RGCS). Morale is based on the experience and training of the unit.
• Atk, Attack
• Def, Defense
• Read., Readiness
• Morale, Morale
• GCB, Ground Combat Bonus, given by commanding officers

To train different ground units, they need to be placed under the command of a headquarter. Training will then start and morale will increase, if the HQ has a suitable leader assigned.

Ground Unit Types (6.00)

Unit Name	Type	Atk	Def	Size	TP
Assault Infantry Battalion	AST	100%	50%	5	100
Brigade Headquarters	BHQ	0%	20%	5	150	†
Divisional Headquarters	DHQ	0%	30%	5	250	†
Construction Brigade	CB	0%	50%	25	150	††
Combat Engineer Battalion	CEB	100%	100%	5	180	†††
Garrision Battalion	GAR	0%	100%	5	60
Heavy Assault Battalion	HVA	120%	120%	5	180
Low Tech Armor Division	LTA	30%	30%	50	90	*
Low Tech Infantry Division	LIT	12.5%	25%	50	50	*
Infantry Cadre	ICD	1%	1%	5		**
Armor Cadre	ACD	1%	1%	5		**
Marine Battalion	MAR	100%	100%	5	180	‡
Marine Company	MRC	20%	20%	1	36	‡
Mobile Infantry Battalion	INF	50%	100%	5	100
Replacement Battalion	REP	0%	5%	5	40	‡‡

†: Brigade Headquarters may command up to four battalions forming a brigade. A Divisional Headquarters may command up to four brigades at a time.
††: Construction Brigades act as a construction factory while on a planet. They are also required to recover abandoned faculties from alien ruins. Construction Brigades are five times bigger than battalions and cannot be split up.
†††: Combat Engineer Battalions fight at double strength when attacking or defending a PDC.
‡: Marines fight at double their listed strength when performing boarding actions against ships and PDCs.
*: Low Tech Infantry and Armor Divisions maybe be converted into Infantry and Armor Cadres respectively.
**: Infantry and Armor Cadres may be used to reduce the cost of training a new unit. Infantry Cadres reduce the price by 40 and Armor by 60.
‡‡: Replacement Battalions will help wounded ground units on the same planet recover to full strength at a cost to their own health.

See also: Ground Forces: Transportation, New units, Boarding Combat

Deployment

There are two ship components that allow you to deploy troops. Ships equipped with Troop Transport Bays can be used to transport ground forces from planet to planet and carry them into combat zones, while Combat Drop Modules are used to deploy your forces to the surface of a planet/ship quickly.

Troop Transport Bays

Troop Transport Bays are primarily used to transport ground forces across the empire. Simply, bring a ship over to a planet or another ship with troop transport bays. Select the ship you want to load from and select Load GU into Troop Transport. You select the Ground units you want to add from the selection box that fits into the screen one by one. Note ground units come in different sizes, make sure your ships have sufficient Troop Transport capacity. Ground units may only be moved from a ship to a planet, or vice versa, if the ship is in orbit.

Troop Transport can also be used to land forces from orbit into combat, however, transport bays use the same rules for loading and unloading apply as cargo holds, i.e. without a spaceport or cargo handling system, it might take your brigade two weeks to disembark on a hostile planet. That might do if the planet is not defended, but you'd better research combat drop technology if it is.

Combat Drop Modules

Combat Drop Modules are assault transports that are primarily used for quick orbital insertion during planetary assaults where achieving tactical surprise is often an important factor. Ground units loaded into drop pods can be combat dropped, which doesn't require any unloading time for them to hit the ground and begin fighting. There are battalion-sized and company-sized drop modules (for Marines), which have to be researched first.

You don't need troop bays, but troops held in drop modules will lose morale over time. So you'll want to move them around in troop bays and only transfer them to drop modules when you need to. Don't forget to include Cargo Handling Systems on the transports because troops begin to lose morale as soon as the transfer to drop modules begins. Note that a battalion-sized drop module fits nicely in a FAC.

Cryogenic Combat Drop Modules are drop pods which do not result in a morale loss if troops are kept in them. You cannot mix cryogenic and non-cryogenic drop modules.